This collaboration between Shins' mainman James Mercer and producer du jour Danger Mouse promises much. The High Road and Vaporize are exactly what you would expect: exquisite collisions of Mercer's masterful, slightly winsome melodies and Danger Mouse's sonic skills, as also applied to Gorillaz, Beck and Gnarls Barkley. However, elsewhere the pair – who met in 2004 and have been talking about working together ever since – form too much of a mutual appreciation society to push each other beyond their comfort zones. A sense of over-familiarity abounds, whether in nods to Gorillaz, 1960s west-coast psychedelia or Danger Mouse's previous – and far superior – experiments with sonically enhanced, reflective psychedelia on the Shortwave Set's 2008 Replica Sun Machine. However, the edgier, almost Talking Headsesque The Mall & Misery throws in a far more intriguing post-punk curveball that they could do with exploring more fully if they work together again.

• This article was amended on 9 March 2010. The original referred to James Murphy, who should be Mercer, and the last track is The Mall & Misery, not Mystery. This has been corrected.